Reigning Olympic 100m hurdles champion Sally Pearson will skip her final race in Europe, opting to return to Australia and work on fitness as she fights to be ready for the Rio Olympics.
Pearson has withdrawn from Thursday's Stockholm Diamond League meet and will head home to the Gold Coast this weekend to focus on training, before rejoining the international circuit in several weeks.
The 29-year-old has struggled in her competitive comeback, lagging outside the 13-second barrier in two of her three races over the past week.
The results are not believed to be related to form or confidence following the serious wrist injury she suffered last June, but more to do with residual fitness concerns from her recent achilles injury.
The achilles issue ruled Pearson out of the Australian summer season and prompted her to fly to Germany in March for a check-up with the same doctor who treats Usain Bolt.
It came on just as the London 2012 gold medallist was close to returning from the sickening fall that dislocated and broke 12 bones in her wrist.
Last week Pearson ran a time 13.25sec in Birmingham, before clocking a wind-assisted 12.92sec in Paris and then a slower 13.14sec in Norway.
Each of those times was well outside her own personal best of 12.28sec, and behind the leading Americans in the run to the Olympics in August.
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